Retrain Your Brain to Think Like an Organizer

Like any other skill, organizing has some basic principles. If you train your brain to know these principles, you can successfully organize, no matter the space you are organizing. Here are some of the principles we hand-picked from each room in the house. Take these tips and apply them to any organizing project.

Office: Tall to short

When you are organizing objects in row (back to front or side by side), always put them in order from tall to short. When the tall items are in the back, you can see what is there plus it’s visually appealing.

Living room: Contain

This is one of the main principles of organizing. After you sort, gather and purge, you always need a way to contain and house your items. There are many ways to contain and house, from drawers to shelves to baskets and so on, you have many options to corral items of any size.

Dining room: Straight lines mean more room

Baskets and containers are awesome. They can help you organize and hide many items from view. They come in all sorts of materials and sizes which makes them useful in almost any space. Here is the biggest tip: when it comes to buying baskets for the purpose of organizing, always buy rectangular or square baskets that have straight sides on all 4 corners. Avoid round baskets or baskets that flare out with a smaller bottom than top. Straight lines make the most use of space because they sit right next to each other without wasting any space between. You can also stack them on top of one another.

Bedroom: Fit shapes

If you have group of items that are shaped similarly (i.e. shoes in the bedroom or martini glasses in the kitchen), try to fit the shapes instead of fitting the items. What we mean by that is; if you are using shoe cubbies, put the shoes toe to heel instead of side by side. This way you can fit a pair of high heels in one cubbie instead of 2. You can try this with many items around your house.

Bathroom: Using as much space as possible

Every single foot of space can be used to help you maximize your space. There are many ways to use these dead spaces and turn them to a useful one. If you have under cabinet spaces with no shelf, use half shelves or stackable containers to use as much of the vertical area as you can. Always pay attention to all that vertical space you have. Add shelves, cubbies or even hooks to make the most out of any space.

Kitchen: Nesting

One of the best ways to maximize your space is to nest items. Bowls, spoons, baking sheets, Tupperware and so on are good examples of how to use this principle. Make sure you always nest smaller items inside of bigger ones. For example, start by setting down your biggest bowl. Then place the next biggest bowl inside of that. Continue nesting until you get to the smallest bowl on top. Make sure you nest things that are the same shape!

Storage room: Stacking

This one is great for items that can not be nested but can be stacked on top of each other. Boxes, containers, dishes and so on fall in this category. There are a few things you need to know when you stack. Always stack from the bottom to top in order of heavy to light and big to small. Do not stack things too high unless your items are very light and easy to move. Place the items you rarely use on the bottom. It is also safer to stack same size and shape of items for stability. Always give your stacked item a shake test after stacking to make sure it is nice and sturdy.

Learn and study these basic techniques to retrain your brain to think like an organizer. Test a few of these out in 2015, let us know how it goes and which of these principles resonates with you.